This event was the culmination of a 14 year project to put Manilla, Australia on the world paragliding map. For the last 2 years the organization of the event was a full time unpaid job for me. Mother Nature did not come to the party and decided to provide the region with much needed drought breaking rain virtually from Day 1 onwards as the El Nino pattern broke down.

It was however typically excellent Manilla flying in the weeks leading up to the event with long XC’s possible each day. Thankfully many pilots arrived early to experience this “real” Manilla weather and had the chance to achieve personal bests at the same time. In what can only be described as cruel timing, the rains stopped at the end of the Worlds event…its been fine and sunny since the last day !

With only 5 race tasks in 13 days, this event sets a new record for Manilla in terms of how few races were flown – previously it was 8 (of 14 days), which is quite reasonable by world standards. The FAI Category 1 European Champs in 2006 also had only 5 valid race days for example.

The conditions were not representative of the typical XC flying Manilla is famous for and tasks were difficult to set due to the fine balance needed between weather/course conditions, safety and race requirements. To have 45-60kms races each day and pilots in goal under such circumstances reflects as much on the skill of the pilots as it does on the effectiveness of the task setting.

Thanks…

This event was not possible without the support, assistance, sponsorship and work of a large variety of people, business's and organisations.

The list is long and in order to not miss anyone I am covering whole organizations rather than individuals unless there is a particular situation which is especially needed to be noted (eg committee chairs etc).

Major Support Organisations :

Tamworth Regional Council (with special thanks to Mayor James Treloar)